Proceedings of the 2nd World Conference on Gender Equality
Year: 2024
DOI:
[PDF]
Violence Against Women During the Covid-19 Pandemic: Scoping Review of the Literature in Collaboration with the World Health Organization
Brennan-Wilson, Ain Q. U, Ozkaya C., Amin A., García-Moreno, Thurston, Mackenzie, Lagdon S., Stark P, Lohan M.
ABSTRACT:
Violence against women (VAW) during the COVID-19 pandemic was described as the ‘Shadow Pandemic’ with an increase in reports of VAW. As countries now focus on becoming more resilient to future pandemics, it is critical to understand what we learned about evidence on VAW burden, prevention and response during the COVID-19 pandemic. The World Health Organization commissioned this scoping review to examine the evidence on VAW during COVID-19 in preparation for a Pandemic Preparedness Treaty Terms relating to VAW and COVID-19 were used to search six databases between 01/01/2020 and 11/02/2023, inclusive of all study designs. Data on thematic focus (i.e. burden of violence and/or interventions/services), types of violence, study design, study setting, and participant characteristics were synthesized. Of 25,080 identified records, 694 publications were reviewed in full-text and 419 publications included. The majority (95.5%) of the published research was devoted to documenting the burden of VAW, while only 6.2% studied solutions (interventions/services), with even less emphasis on identifying how to prevent VAW in a pandemic context (1%). Gaps in VAW research that existed prior to the pandemic on women who face multiple intersecting forms of disadvantage endured were also identified. Outstanding also was the gap in research on digital-mediated violence (<5%), even as the importance of on-line facilitated violence soared. Additionally, gaps in evidence on specific types of violence such as femicide, forced marriage, and acid attacks persisted.
keywords: Violence against women, VAW, COVID-19, pandemic, scoping review